Gov't's state secrets claims -- publicly filed versions at EFF page

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Peter Bachman <peterb () cequs com>
Date: May 13, 2006 11:21:21 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Gov't's state secrets claims -- publicly filed versions at  
EFF page

Dave,

On the evening of September 10th, 2001 my daughter was very restless.  
After much tossing and turning she fell out of bed and hit her ear
hard on the end table next to bed, badly bruised, but otherwise ok.   
After some time with lots of ice, she went back to bed,
but woken up, I stayed up for quite a while, and when the time came  
to grab the train to my meeting that day at Windows on the World
I decided to stay home.

Reading the current administration's claim to invoke state secrets  
elicits a common thread.

During that day the government's major reaction was that of  
paralysis. It was understandable, but not the first surprise attack on
this country. It was the first attack from within our country of such  
magnitude.

We would learn later, it was not a surprise at all to the FBI agent  
who could not get anyone to listen, and what did the administration  
blame that on? Not incompetence in connecting the dots, but the FISA  
court that separated domestic LE with intelligence. If there was one  
single person who could have stopped this awful tragedy, no matter  
who that person was, much less a trained FBI agent, wouldn't it be  
worth listening to
him or her? Wouldn't you drop what you were doing, take a minute and  
just listen, and then react? Or would you decide to spy on the entire  
country?

Before and after 9/11 a broken classification system of state secrets  
and turf rivalries led to a documented lack of communication
between agencies, companies, and officials despite some of the most  
advanced technologies in the world. We had "silos" of information.

What in fact worked? Citizens with low tech cell phones who told each  
other the truth.

They quickly determined the amount of risk to themselves and others,  
and acted decisively and without hesitation to protect the same  
officials who had failed to protect them that day.

Cicero made it clear that while it makes sense to limit the actions  
of officials in many ways, those same limitations do not always apply  
to the actions of citizens because the citizens, (as in the case of  
Flight 93), are uniquely able to respond. Did we not see this also in  
Katrina where citizens in both official roles and non-official roles  
were discouraged from helping? Isn't this a pattern? Officials have  
to be separated in their powers to prevent abuse, citizens do not and  
when we decide to act, we do as the demos of the republic.

While it may make sense to some to institute a panopticon, it affords  
little real protection compared to a citizenry who knows the truth.  
What exactly is secret when it isn't a secret? It's because it's been  
labeled a secret, when it is not.

To paraphrase  a well known quote, the only national security  that  
is being protected  is the security of the people who allowed these  
blunders to happen in the first place.

-pb



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